Part 9 (1/2)

”It is,” she agreed.

”We'll get a locksmith in here this afternoon,” he said.

”Pardon?”

”A locksmith,” he told her. ”I don't know if a mannequin can move on its own or not, but no matter what, I think it will be a good idea to change the locks.”

”Okay. But we'll have to tell Ben. Or ask him, really. He does own the place,” Scarlet reminded him.

”Of course,” he said.

He had just about finished his walk-through when there was a knock at the door. She turned around to open it, but Diego was at her side before she had a chance to.

”You don't just do that,” he said, his tone harsh.

”It's broad daylight,” she protested.

”What? You think people can only be killed in the dark?” he asked, stepping past her and opening the door himself.

She almost laughed when Brett and the other two agents entered.

Diego had always been careful, though. Maybe that was part of what had driven the wedge between them. She tended to look for the good in people, while Diego often seemed to expect the worst. It came from what he did, of course, what he saw day in and day out. And when it had come to really thinking about a family...

Right now she didn't want to think about that. She didn't want to hurt. She needed help, and she was very grateful that Diego was here to provide it.

She'd never doubted that he would, of course, and that said something right there.

”Anything?” Diego asked the new arrivals.

”Nothing new,” Brett said.

”But Adam is coming in tonight,” Meg said, ”and he said that by tomorrow morning we'll be on the job officially. Adam always knows someone who knows someone else. He's an amazing man.”

”Wow. Is that really how it works?” Scarlet asked.

”Sometimes,” Meg told her. ”You'll love Adam. Everyone does. In fact, that goes a long way toward explaining how he gets things done and why this unit is so successful.”

Matt looked at Diego. ”Have you explained to her who we are?”

”She knows we're FBI,” Diego told him. ”I haven't had a chance yet to explain about the Krewe.”

”The Krewe?” Scarlet murmured, and looked questioningly at him.

”Brett and I have just joined a special unit within the Bureau,” he explained. ”It's called the Krewe of Hunters, and it deals with the unusual-things that defy logic, things that cross over into the paranormal, the otherworldly. Adam Harrison isn't only in charge of the Krewe, he's the man who managed to get it formed in the first place.”

”Adam has an uncanny ability to find people with extrasensory perception and other abilities that help them deal with the kinds of paranormal threats we face,” Matt said. ”For at least a decade, he did it quietly, hiring them to work for him privately. He's also a major philanthropist and knows most of the major players in government as well as private industry. So a while back he made things official and formed the Krewe of Hunters. The unit keeps growing, inviting new members, because this is a big country, and the evil side of the supernatural just keeps going.”

”I look forward to meeting him,” Scarlet said.

”Meanwhile, what do you know about Nathan Kendall and the way he and his wife were murdered?” Matt asked her.

”Do you want the long or the short version?” Scarlet asked.

”We're here for the duration,” Matt told her.

”Then let's head up the stairs. You can look at Nathan while we talk about him,” Diego said.

”Oh?” Meg asked.

”Come on upstairs and you'll understand,” Scarlet said.

She'd half expected that Nathan Kendall would have moved again and was relieved to find that he hadn't. Maybe he knew she was onto him and this was a good time to behave.

Diego moved the statue over by the window, then leaned against the wall next to it, while the others settled themselves around the room.

”Nathan Kendall was a fascinating person,” Scarlet began. ”He was born in Virginia and fought under Lee during the Civil War. When the war was over, a number of the men in his company turned to robbing banks and holding up stagecoaches. They only stole from those they considered to be carpetbaggers, out to take advantage of the South while she was on her knees. But when someone was killed during one of their robberies, Nathan wanted out. He headed west and wound up here. He bought this land from a man named Rollo Conway. Conway had been searching for gold with very little success and needed the money. Nathan must have liked the guy, though, since he kept his name for the ranch.

”At the time, there was a United States marshal living in the vicinity, a widower named Tom Vickers. Nathan fell in love with the man's daughter. The man didn't trust Nathan and forbade the marriage, but when the he was out of town, Nathan and Jillian were married anyway. Back then, of course, when a United States marshal was off working, it could be months or years before he got back home. By the time he returned, Nathan and Jillian weren't just married, they had a baby, Zachary. One night someone tricked Nathan into coming outside, strung him up on a tree and nearly disemboweled him, and when Jillian came running out to his rescue, she was shot and killed. At some point the killer-or killers-decided they were done torturing Nathan, and he was shot, too. Their bodies were found the next day by Rollo Conway, who had come up to see how they were doing.

”There were a number of suspects, including Marshal Vickers, who hadn't wanted the marriage, and a number of Nathan's past affiliates, the men he'd left behind after they killed a man. No one ever discovered the truth. Marshal Vickers, naturally, raised Zachary, who went on to have fourteen children of his own. Ben is one of his descendants, and so is Terry Ballantree, one of the current guests here at the ranch.”

Just then Brett's cell phone rang, and it was clear from his side of the conversation that the FBI had come up with some new information.

”That was HQ,” he said as soon as he hung up. ”They found out what Candace and Larry Parker were doing here. They lived in Denver, but they'd never been to Estes Park. They decided to drive up on the spur of the moment and see if they could get a room here at the ranch, so they asked a neighbor to keep an eye on the house and hit the road. And I think you'll be very interested to know why.” He waited until they were all looking at him, then said, ”Because Larry had gone onto one of those ancestry sites and found out that he was a descendant of Nathan Kendall.”

Scarlet felt a chill settle over her. ”So Nathan and Jillian's great, great, whatever grandchild and his wife were killed in the exact same way that Nathan and Jillian were?” she asked, shock evident in her voice. ”Why? Why would someone do that?”

”I don't know,” Diego said. ”That's what we have to figure out.”

”We have to warn them,” Scarlet said. ”Ben and Trisha and Terry.” She tried not to think about the fact that she was one of Nathan's descendants, too.

”I promise we'll talk to them,” Brett said. ”Right now there's still a cop out front.” He paused and looked at her in a way that sent a s.h.i.+ver down her spine. ”There's one more thing, and it concerns you.”

”What is it?” she asked.

”When our guys found out about the connection between the Parkers and Nathan Kendall, they ran a computer search. There are about two hundred people living today who can trace their lineage back to Nathan and Jillian Kendall,” Meg said.

”That's not surprising, with Zachary's fourteen children,” Scarlet said. ”What does that have to do with me?”

Brett held her gaze with his for a long moment, then said, ”You're one of them.”

5.

Scarlet smiled. ”Yes, I know,” she said.

Her smile deepened as she explained. ”That's part of why I'm here. Ben found that out years ago, when we were both living in New York. That's why we met. He tracked me down when I was working for the Metropolitan Museum and told me.” She smiled and said, ”I studied my whole genealogy after he told me about the connection. Zachary fathered eight boys and six girls. Infant mortality was incredibly high back then, but every one of them survived to adulthood. Must be something in the water out here,” she joked, then went on. ”I've got it all memorized, dates and married names and everything, so at the risk of boring you... One of the girls, Annabeth, was born in 1890. In 1908, she gave birth to Valerie Banks. Valerie gave birth to Genevieve Osprey in 1930, and in 1949 Genevieve gave birth to Leanne David. Leanne married Anthony Barton, and in 1970 they had my father, Eric.